Tuesday, Nov 19th

We had a nice room at the Best Western, good beds so we slept well.  But apparently not late into the morning.  Our only complaint was the water, but the hotel had no control over that.  It was very soft water, so good luck if you put too much shampoo in your hair, but the real problem was the taste.  A problem that is not uncommon when on the road.
  We were up early so loaded the luggage and went for the complimentary hotel breakfast, although we had not worked up much of an appetite.  The weather was nice, but just above the freezing point.  We were on the highway at 7:09 according to Marg.  Neither of us are exactly a morning person, but it was early & I would certainly not dispute that time.
  The traffic was light and roads great, so we set the cruise and let 'er roll.  We had not seen snow on the road sides since north of Red Deer and down south of the border, just in the high country.  When we got to the urban sprawl north of Salt Lake City it was only 9:15 and traffic was pretty good for there.  Oops wait a minute they had about 20 miles of road construction, lane reductions, lane width reductions, HOV lane closure and the traffic was typical SLC heavy in the construction areas.  You would think they would at least draw straight lane lines, but some drunk drew these ones in the middle of the night.  Now I know what it's like to drive in an off road obstacle course.  Most of the way we were 65 mph [approx 100 kmph] or better, so we were through the entire urban area in about 45 minutes.
  The traffic after Spanish Forks was light, so we made good time going south through Utah.  Our lunch stop was in Beaver, where we picked the golden arches.  This was a new experience for us as we had to use the self order kiosk, a task usually handled by one of the grandchildren.  With the help of a nice Mexican guy we managed to get fed.  The food was a little different and Marg reported the chicken nuggets as the best she has ever eaten.  Might have had something to do with the timing, LOL.
  There has been a lot of construction in SLC and St George when we got there, where we again encountered major highway rebuilding.  We used to leave the motorhome there for the late fall, so have quite a lot of experience with the city and were blown away with the amount of change.  A stop for fuel and it is increasing in price as we head south, nothing new about that.  We paid $3.05 per gallon [about 80 cents a litre] in St George, but in fairness it was a Chevron station and they are always the most expensive.
  Onward to the south and wouldn't you know it about half of the Virgin River Gorge was down to single lane each way for road construction.  This section of the I-15 is actually in Arizona.  It is a small section between Utah & Nevada.  When we got to Mesquite, Nevada it was about 2:30 and being a different time zone it was only 1:30 so we had to wait a couple of hours for our room.  We took a driving tour of Mesquite and were again amazed at the amount of housing and commercial construction from when we used to stay here in the motorhome.
  After we spent a bit of time in the Virgin River Casino, which is where we had a room.  I had booked the room from home and the rate I was given was $27.  When we were checking in I was a bit apprehensive as no one before us got a room for less than $65.  We were pleased when the rate turned out to be exactly as quoted with a bit of tax added on.  At the casino we did our best to give some of that good deal back and for my part I was successful.  Marg on the other hand made enough to pay for the room, our supper and still had about $50 to the good.  I's funny but this casino favours her, so it was not the first time for her doing this.  The temperature just kept getting warmer all day and by the time we reached Mesquite it was 26 C in the sun, so a very pleasant day.
  For the statistician in you our total mileage is now 2,720 km's, 830 of which were today's leg of the journey.  We won't be buying any fuel in Nevada, so I expect our next purchase in Arizona to be much better.
  Now if we can keep this one hour sorted out, we will be on the road at a decent hour tomorrow.  To help us in that regard we are not changing our watches, so anything could happen
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